Scenic

[Berkut]

I see. It could be that they are just slowing down on their hiring then.

[RPJ]

I am going to wait to apply until after their current interview day this month on the 27th. I will try to build some more multi time up as well.

[Berkut]

Well, it looks like I might have other opportunities coming up. I'd still like to fly for Scenic, though. I wonder if I should just call them and ask what's up.

[pilot602]

I had 1,000TT and 500ME when I started at Scenic. Lol.

Just be patient. They're going into the slow season and hiring is probably winding down. That and the the mess with finally combining Scenic and Grand Canyon is just over the horizon so I'd bet they're waiting to figure that out first.

[fly8slep]

Wow, has anybody read the sept 19th interview gouge for Scenic at aviationinterviews.com? Appraently they couldn't make it through the rudeness of the interviewers, gone in 10 minutes. They do try to mess with your mind, I wouldn't let it affect you like it did this person.

[vheissu]

anyway you can post it? not letting me register there and i have no need to pay for it

[Berkut]

Date of interview: April 19, 2007
Date interview was submitted: September 19, 2007
Were you hired as a result of this interview? no
Total flight time: 1240
PIC flight time: 1100
PIC TURBINE flight time: 0
Instrument flight time: 110
Total multi engine flight time: 101
Did someone walk in your application/ resume? no
How many letters of recommendation did you bring? 1
Are you a CFI? yes
Are you a CFII? yes
Are you a MEI? yes
Are you an ATP? no
Did you complete the ATP written? no
Are you an FE? no
Did you complete the FE written? no
How long after you sent your resume were you called? 1 weeks
Do you have a college degree? 4 year
Do you have a military background? no
What is your current job? cfi
What is your age? 31
What aircraft were you assigned? N/A
If you were hired what is your training date?

Interview experience:
Wow! This was the rudest interview I have ever been to in my whole life for any position anywhere! I don't understand why any professional organization would act like this. The interview consisted of SCREAMING and YELLING by the interviewers! It started like this. There were 4 candidates in my class. We all took a written test (if you have studied the ATP written lately you will do fine) and then did the sim evaluation, and were called in one by one for the interview. I was the third one to interview. The last candidate came out, and said to us, "Wow, they were very rude." Then the interviewer came out holding a file and just stared at us! Didn't say a word! Was he trying to intimidate us or something? I don't know. (One of the job applicants was a local flight instructor in Vegas and said he recognized this interviewer from a town meeting in Henderson, NV. The meeting was about noise abatement procedures and apparently this interviewer had stood up at the meeting at said "You want our pilots to follow this? Our pilots are lucky to chew gum and walk at the same time!") Unbelievable! What a professional thing to say about your own company! So anyway, back to the interview. This same interviewer was standing there, I don't know his name, but probably about 30 or so, kind of tall. I finally broke the silence and said I'll go next. He didn't say anything but just waived to me to follow him. I did and sat down at the interview with him and another interviewer, an older gentlemen that wore glasses and had a softer demeanor. Upon the start of the interview and sitting down, I tried to shake their hands and both of them refused! They both said that they had a cold, even though neither one of them showed any symptoms of a cold or flu. Then the questions started. The first question they will ask you is about your former job or career you had, specifically outside of aviation, and they will challenge you on something factual about it and say you were wrong (similar to gouge below where they ask the applicant "What happens to the price of bonds when interest rates decrease?") Maybe this is part of the hostile interviewer technique, but I don't understand why they would go this far. Next, they ask a question of what does the GS and altitude mean on the profile part of the instrument chart. At first I answered glide slope intercept. Then he just yelled at the top of his lungs, I swear everyone else down the hall could hear "You just killed everyone on the airplane!" For a split-second, I couldn't help it and almost chuckled just a bit. He then screamed again "It's not funny! This is serious! You just killed 20 people and their families!" I then regained my composure and said "Well I'm sorry; I was taught that was glide slope intercept." They then continued with their rant and told me that they answer there were looking for was that it was an altimeter check and nothing else. Okay then. Next there were questions about the Seal Beach ILS. Three ways to identify BECCA, etc. Then there was a question about a TAF, when it is valid. Then the whole interview was over in about 10 minutes. I thanked them for the opportunity and once again offered my hand for a handshake. Once again, they refused saying they were sick. What gives here! What culture are these people from? I don't understand this. Shake a man's hand for Pete's Sake! A week later I got the canned letter stating that I didn't get the job. It turned out best for me as I got a job with a different charter company, that is better for my career. As much as the airlines and different companies are desperate for pilots right now, I wouldn't recommend this job. It is almost all VFR flying in a fixed gear Turbine plane, with low pay and long 12 hour days in the hot, desert climate and they same route day in and day out. Not exactly the best type of flying to put in a logbook for a flying career. And with the way they seem to treat their pilots, and with the attitude they have toward their pilots, who would want to work for this operation anyway!

[RPJ]

Originally Posted by Berkut

Date of interview: April 19, 2007
Date interview was submitted: September 19, 2007
Were you hired as a result of this interview? no
Total flight time: 1240
PIC flight time: 1100
PIC TURBINE flight time: 0
Instrument flight time: 110
Total multi engine flight time: 101
Did someone walk in your application/ resume? no
How many letters of recommendation did you bring? 1
Are you a CFI? yes
Are you a CFII? yes
Are you a MEI? yes
Are you an ATP? no
Did you complete the ATP written? no
Are you an FE? no
Did you complete the FE written? no
How long after you sent your resume were you called? 1 weeks
Do you have a college degree? 4 year
Do you have a military background? no
What is your current job? cfi
What is your age? 31
What aircraft were you assigned? N/A
If you were hired what is your training date?

Interview experience:
Wow! This was the rudest interview I have ever been to in my whole life for any position anywhere! I don't understand why any professional organization would act like this. The interview consisted of SCREAMING and YELLING by the interviewers! It started like this. There were 4 candidates in my class. We all took a written test (if you have studied the ATP written lately you will do fine) and then did the sim evaluation, and were called in one by one for the interview. I was the third one to interview. The last candidate came out, and said to us, "Wow, they were very rude." Then the interviewer came out holding a file and just stared at us! Didn't say a word! Was he trying to intimidate us or something? I don't know. (One of the job applicants was a local flight instructor in Vegas and said he recognized this interviewer from a town meeting in Henderson, NV. The meeting was about noise abatement procedures and apparently this interviewer had stood up at the meeting at said "You want our pilots to follow this? Our pilots are lucky to chew gum and walk at the same time!") Unbelievable! What a professional thing to say about your own company! So anyway, back to the interview. This same interviewer was standing there, I don't know his name, but probably about 30 or so, kind of tall. I finally broke the silence and said I'll go next. He didn't say anything but just waived to me to follow him. I did and sat down at the interview with him and another interviewer, an older gentlemen that wore glasses and had a softer demeanor. Upon the start of the interview and sitting down, I tried to shake their hands and both of them refused! They both said that they had a cold, even though neither one of them showed any symptoms of a cold or flu. Then the questions started. The first question they will ask you is about your former job or career you had, specifically outside of aviation, and they will challenge you on something factual about it and say you were wrong (similar to gouge below where they ask the applicant "What happens to the price of bonds when interest rates decrease?") Maybe this is part of the hostile interviewer technique, but I don't understand why they would go this far. Next, they ask a question of what does the GS and altitude mean on the profile part of the instrument chart. At first I answered glide slope intercept. Then he just yelled at the top of his lungs, I swear everyone else down the hall could hear "You just killed everyone on the airplane!" For a split-second, I couldn't help it and almost chuckled just a bit. He then screamed again "It's not funny! This is serious! You just killed 20 people and their families!" I then regained my composure and said "Well I'm sorry; I was taught that was glide slope intercept." They then continued with their rant and told me that they answer there were looking for was that it was an altimeter check and nothing else. Okay then. Next there were questions about the Seal Beach ILS. Three ways to identify BECCA, etc. Then there was a question about a TAF, when it is valid. Then the whole interview was over in about 10 minutes. I thanked them for the opportunity and once again offered my hand for a handshake. Once again, they refused saying they were sick. What gives here! What culture are these people from? I don't understand this. Shake a man's hand for Pete's Sake! A week later I got the canned letter stating that I didn't get the job. It turned out best for me as I got a job with a different charter company, that is better for my career. As much as the airlines and different companies are desperate for pilots right now, I wouldn't recommend this job. It is almost all VFR flying in a fixed gear Turbine plane, with low pay and long 12 hour days in the hot, desert climate and they same route day in and day out. Not exactly the best type of flying to put in a logbook for a flying career. And with the way they seem to treat their pilots, and with the attitude they have toward their pilots, who would want to work for this operation anyway!

Wow first bad interview post about Scenic I have ever read. Lets wait to hear back from CFI2007 and CottonMouth about their interview experience with them.

[cfii2007]

Just thought I'd go ahead and post my interview feedback. First off, it was NOTHING like the event described above. I was there with one other applicant. Interview started a little past 0830. John led us into a room and described the wages, work, schedule, upgrade and training. There is no training contract, even for upgrade. He was kinda funny and sarcastic, even joking that new hires will have days off in the middle of the week so it's more convinient for them to interview at Expressjet. We were then told the ATP written was cancelled due to some computer issues. I was pretty bummed to hear that, since I'd been studying and spending lots of Friday nights with John and Martha King. We filled out tons of paperwork and had copies of our licenses checked. The simulator evaluation came next, I HIGHLY recommed taking it with Bob. I did the prep the previous day and it was much more difficult than the version on the interview. He would make you study power settings for each stage of flight and even though I'm IFR current it was pretty easy to fall behind the airplane. The simulator eval was typically one hold and one approach. He will administer a made up SID and then proceed to BLD. I was given a hold about 1 mile out (make sure you ask for an EFC time!). After one turn in the hold, was cleared for the VOR 25L into LAS. The approach is pretty straight forward, make sure you do the altitude callouts they suggested (1000 to go, 500 to go, 100 to go, minimums.) Also, callout the appropriate checklist (Climb, Cruise, Approach). I landed the sim (or at least tried to) and was given a debrief. They are mainly looking for your instrument scan, callouts, checklist calls and basic trainability. Next we were taken for the Tech portion with John and another gentleman. Quick logbook check, questions about failed checkrides. Asked to read a TAF, which was pretty easy although I did get a little confused about the forecast time he was asking. Next was told to finger fly the ILS into LGB. I struggled with this a bit, since it wasn't really covered in the prep the previous day. Three ways to identify BECCA (without an ADF), depart Seal Beach and enter the hold (entry?), altitudes and identifying the MAP. There were few other questions about windshear and how this would affect the glideslope, circle to land mins for 110 KTS, descent rate for that speed (you have to mentally interpolate), what makes a good Captain. It was a pretty straightforward presentation, non-confrontational. Most of the oral seemed to be ATP level questions. If you don't know the answer, they might help you along a bit and lead you down the right path. I got most of the answers right, and of course you will be asked "are you sure?" Just think it over and be firm with your answer. I'm sure they don't expect you to know everything.

I then asked the usual questions about training, schedules and such. We were both told in the beginning the October class was full and that there would be another in November. Essentially, they are running a hiring pool right now, since things have slowed down a bit. Also informed us a letter would be sent to both of us regarding good or bad info.

Finished up about 1230 and drove to LAS for my return flight. It was a fairly positive experience, even if I am not selected.

If anybody has upcoming interviews, PM me and I will reply with more specific gouge.

[Berkut]

Thanks for the writeup. Sounds like you did okay, here's hoping you hear from them soon.

I'm curious about the "three ways to identify BECCA without the ADF. I'm seeing:
(1) On the LOC and 200 radial of the SLI VOR
(2) On the LOC and receiving the OM
(3) On the LOC and GS at 1573 feet.
Are those the kind of answers they're looking for?

Chart:
http://204.108.4.16/d-tpp/0709/00236IL30.PDF

[cfii2007]

Well, the answers I gave them were:

1) On the 200 radial from SLI at 2 DME (look below the SLI VOR for this info).
2) Intersection of the R-200 and LOC.
3) Marker beacon (since BECCA is a LOM....they will ask you what color "blue").
4) I mentioned GS intercept at 1573, but he went on about what if you have centered GS and ALT is reading 1800'.......

The first three are the best answers.

[fly8slep]

Originally Posted by cfii2007

Well, the answers I gave them were:

1) On the 200 radial from SLI at 2 DME (look below the SLI VOR for this info).
2) Intersection of the R-200 and LOC.
3) Marker beacon (since BECCA is a LOM....they will ask you what color "blue").
4) I mentioned GS intercept at 1573, but he went on about what if you have centered GS and ALT is reading 1800'.......

The first three are the best answers.

Yea the first three I would use. Number 4 is interesting because for some reason they are really particular about asking you about number 4. I guess most don't get it right, the sept19 poster got in trouble because of his answer. This was a question that I had trouble with in the interview, never gave the right answer, because I wasn't even thinking about an improper altimeter setting, I mean if you're shooting and approach you probably should have set the altimeter long ago. Frankly I didn't say it but it seemed like a stupid question... It would most likely never happen in real flying.

[Berkut]

Originally Posted by cfii2007

The first three are the best answers.

I gotcha. I guess I wasn't wrong, I was just thinking in terms of what indications I would get if I was inbound on the approach. I guess #4 is to see if you would catch an incorrect alt setting if you got the OM tone with the LOC/GS needles centered but indicating 1800 feet altitude.

Hitting the runway at DH might be a clue, too.

[vheissu]

I'm not sure what is up with that Sep. 19th interview.. mine was NOTHING like that.

[RPJ]

Originally Posted by cfii2007

Just thought I'd go ahead and post my interview feedback. First off, it was NOTHING like the event described above. I was there with one other applicant. Interview started a little past 0830. John led us into a room and described the wages, work, schedule, upgrade and training. There is no training contract, even for upgrade. He was kinda funny and sarcastic, even joking that new hires will have days off in the middle of the week so it's more convinient for them to interview at Expressjet. We were then told the ATP written was cancelled due to some computer issues. I was pretty bummed to hear that, since I'd been studying and spending lots of Friday nights with John and Martha King. We filled out tons of paperwork and had copies of our licenses checked. The simulator evaluation came next, I HIGHLY recommed taking it with Bob. I did the prep the previous day and it was much more difficult than the version on the interview. He would make you study power settings for each stage of flight and even though I'm IFR current it was pretty easy to fall behind the airplane. The simulator eval was typically one hold and one approach. He will administer a made up SID and then proceed to BLD. I was given a hold about 1 mile out (make sure you ask for an EFC time!). After one turn in the hold, was cleared for the VOR 25L into LAS. The approach is pretty straight forward, make sure you do the altitude callouts they suggested (1000 to go, 500 to go, 100 to go, minimums.) Also, callout the appropriate checklist (Climb, Cruise, Approach). I landed the sim (or at least tried to) and was given a debrief. They are mainly looking for your instrument scan, callouts, checklist calls and basic trainability. Next we were taken for the Tech portion with John and another gentleman. Quick logbook check, questions about failed checkrides. Asked to read a TAF, which was pretty easy although I did get a little confused about the forecast time he was asking. Next was told to finger fly the ILS into LGB. I struggled with this a bit, since it wasn't really covered in the prep the previous day. Three ways to identify BECCA (without an ADF), depart Seal Beach and enter the hold (entry?), altitudes and identifying the MAP. There were few other questions about windshear and how this would affect the glideslope, circle to land mins for 110 KTS, descent rate for that speed (you have to mentally interpolate), what makes a good Captain. It was a pretty straightforward presentation, non-confrontational. Most of the oral seemed to be ATP level questions. If you don't know the answer, they might help you along a bit and lead you down the right path. I got most of the answers right, and of course you will be asked "are you sure?" Just think it over and be firm with your answer. I'm sure they don't expect you to know everything.

I then asked the usual questions about training, schedules and such. We were both told in the beginning the October class was full and that there would be another in November. Essentially, they are running a hiring pool right now, since things have slowed down a bit. Also informed us a letter would be sent to both of us regarding good or bad info.

Finished up about 1230 and drove to LAS for my return flight. It was a fairly positive experience, even if I am not selected.

If anybody has upcoming interviews, PM me and I will reply with more specific gouge.

Thanks for the write up. Appears that you did a good job with the interview. Was CottonMouth the other applicant with you? Good luck!

[cfii2007]

If he was from Philadephia....yes.

[Cottonmouth]

yep, that was me.

cfii2007 pretty much summed up what happened. There was no yelling or anything like that described in the Sept. 19th one. They will try and get you to second guess yourself and make things somewhat confrontational. I had three people giving me the interview. One behind an office desk, and the other two were seated like someone would normally sit if dealing with the person behind the desk. I was squeezed in on the side sitting at one end.

Mine started out with John asking me what a Gant Chart is? It has nothing to do with aviation, I had no idea but when he descirbed it I knew what he was talking about only under a different name. It's a chart that would be used to say, build a house. It lists in order what needs to be done, etc. and if something doesn't get done it will hold up the progress (electrical/plumbing done before drywall). Anyways....

I got the standard read a TAF, 3 ways to define Becca, etc. I don't think I got all three out before they changed the subject or divereted my attention to something else. When I said it could be indentified by the marker beacons, they asked me the color for the OM and one of them said you sure it's not amber colored ...they went on to ask then what's the white colored one? They kept at it long enough to make you second guess yourself, but just stay the course and they'll eventually give up. I got asked about the GS elevation at Becca. They asked me what would happen if my Alt. was reading 1800' while over Becca, and I continued to fly it down to DH. I said I'd already be on the ground .... one of them said, "no you'd be dead."

I finger flew the LongBeach approach fine. They said I must have read gouge from somewhere online, which sort of suprised me since it's not a hard approach to fly.

Some parts of the interview were a little odd and I think they could do it in a better manner but that's just me.

It ended with them telling me that to make my flight back to PIT more relaxed that I was hired into a pool for their next available class date, which is supposed to be November but they weren't exactly sure.

[RPJ]

Cottonmouth, GJ getting hired! What are your current times?

[cfii2007]

Congrats....guess I didn't make the cut.

[Cottonmouth]

My TT 280, multi 20.

cfii2007, I wouldn't give up hope until you get the letter in the mail. I'm almost certain they told me we BOTH were going to get put into the pool! Since our interviews were somewhat different, they might have told me since you were already gone. I figured they'd have told you since you went before me. I'm still waiting for the letter to make it official.

[Cottonmouth]

Here's what my sim ride was...

During the sim prep, you're told to use certain power setting, etc., but during the actual sim it was do whatever is required to maintain 120 kts at all times.

Takeoff Rnwy 01, fly runway heading to 3,500'
Right turn, direct Boulder City VOR, climb to 6,000'
Told to intercept the 080 radial and hold at 5 DME, left turns.
*ASK for EFC! When I asked I was told to do two turns.

I did 1.5 laps in the hold and then cleared for the VOR 25L approach.

Both of us were in the room during the sim ride, one continues to fill put paperwork, while the other does the sim first. The second ride changes somewhat. I went first but listened to cfii2007's ride and from what I remember, the takeoff runway and holding instrctions are different.

The altimeter on the sim isn't like any I'd ever flown. It only has a pointer for 100.' There's a small window on the left side of it that has the thousand foot readings. From what I remember the HSI and ADF are both off of Nav1 and the second VOR is far enough away on the right side that it's almost no use.

[cfii2007]

I just know from past experience letters are bad. But I was told we would both be notified by mail either way. I'm just not very optimistic.

My sim ride was a bit different. I think he had me intercept the R-260 and about 1 DME out gives a holding clearance. And yes, the Altimeter is VERY weird. It actually forces you to do altitude callouts.

At any rate, if anybody has upcoming interviews, PM me and I'll be glad to help.

[vheissu]

Don't give up until you get the letter! Congrats Cottonmouth, see ya around.

[cfii2007]

I think they only notify by mail those that didn't make it. Either way, I wish they'd hurry....I have other options to explore!!

[vheissu]

You still get a Congratulations letter if you make it. Expect it really soon, mine came about a week afterwards.